Vice President JD Vance vociferously defended the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed Renee Good in Minnesota on Wednesday, stating that federal agents are protected by “absolute immunity” when carrying out law enforcement operations.
The vice president joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for an impromptu briefing, where he shamed the media for accusing the officer of “murder.”
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“This was an attack on law and order. This was an attack on the American people. The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace, and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day,” he claimed.
Vance told reporters that the officer in question had, six months prior, “nearly had his life ended” after being hit and dragged by a car while attempting to arrest an illegal immigrant in the state, requiring him to receive 33 stitches in his leg.
“You think, maybe, he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” he continued, before stating that Good was part of “a part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.”
“If the media wants to tell the truth, they ought to tell the truth: that a group of left-wing radicals have been working tirelessly, sometimes using domestic terror techniques, to try to make it impossible for the president of the United States to do what the American people elected him to do, which is enforce our immigration laws,” Vance said.
The vice president did face a number of questions about how many videos of the incident do not back up the administration’s claim that Good sought to ram the agent with her car before being killed, a disconnect which the vice president did recognize.
“Look, I don’t know what’s in a person’s heart or in a person’s head, and obviously we’re not going to get the chance to ask this woman what was going on,” he said. “Was she panicking when she drove into this officer, or was she actually trying to ram him? That’s a reasonable conversation. What’s not reasonable is for so many of you to plaster onto the media that this was an innocent woman and that the ICE agent committed murder, which is what many of you have said explicitly, and some of you have said implicitly. That’s what I have an objection to.”
Vance reiterated that both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the incident, but would not say whether the officer has been placed on leave while the inquiry proceeds.
As for reports that Minnesota officials have been blocked from taking part in the investigation, the vice president countered that “a federal law enforcement official engaging in a federal law enforcement action” has “absolute immunity.
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“The idea that [Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN)] and a bunch of radicals are going to go after him and make this guy’s life miserable because he was doing the job he was asked to do is preposterous,” the vice president added. “What I would like Minnesota to focus on is the real issue: they are encouraging people — many officials are encouraging people — to commit violence against ICE officers. It’s ridiculous, and it has to stop.”
Watch Vance’s comments in full: